O'Rourke, K

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Leeds Beckett Repository

ALT JOURNAL NUMBER 4: SUMMER 200848IntroductionEnquiry-based learning (EBL) encompassesapproaches to learning that are driven by a processof enquiry, for example problem-based learning,fieldwork and research projects. EBL represents ashift away from passive methods of learning tomore facilitative teaching methods where studentsare supported and guided through processes ofenquiry to construct their own knowledge. It has been argued (Kahn and O’Rourke, 2005) thatEBL can be used to address some keycontemporary issues in the learning process thatmight impact particularly on the first-yearexperience, including students’ sense of anonymityand social isolation within a mass higher educationsystem.But consider this third-year Literary Studiesstudent’s response to an encounter with EBL:“If I had come in the first year and been droppedinto this situation, I would have freaked out. I quiteliked being anonymous in the first year.” (Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005)The above reflection reveals the anxiety felt bysome students when faced with their new identityas a university student. According to researchcarried out by Yorke and Longden (2008), youngerstudents suffer to a greater extent in respect totransition, seem to have more difficulty in makingfriends with fellow students, are more likely tosuffer homesickness and often struggle withdeveloping a sense of belonging in the city or townin which they are studying. Yorke and Longden’s pointers for success inrelation to the first-year student include:• a mode of teaching in which students are quicklyengaged in academic work and are givenformative feedback from an early stage• a teaching approach that focuses on studentdevelopment within the subject area• finding ways in which students can be supportedin developing a network of peers that can sustainthem when difficulties arise.Engagement and feedbackGiven that EBL is an approach that can look and feelvery different from more traditional methods, it isimportant that student expectations are considered.For many first-year students, their experience oflearning has so far been in passive mode, a matterof receiving information from a teacher and thenregurgitating that information in response to testsand exams. During his workshop at the Edinburgh SPARQSconference (Johnston, 2006), Bill Johnstonsuggested that to achieve teaching for learning,universities should replace the model of thelecturer as primarily a transmitter of disciplinaryknowledge and examiner of student comprehensionwith a model that seeks to move the student –personified as actively and confidently takingresponsibility for developing robust understanding –to the centre of the educational stage. Lewis Elton(2000) also argues that “the centre of the teachingand learning process must become the student”and quotes Heidegger: “the teacher is ahead of hisapprentices in this alone, that he has still far moreto learn than they … he has to learn to let themlearn”, acknowledging that this will require aradical change of attitude for some academics. Typically, in EBL the students work collaborativelyin small groups. Encouraging students to co-operate in this way can enable their learning to takeon a social dimension. Students start to engagewith learning as natural, enjoyable and notdetached from regular activity. They have describedthis type of learning experience as “healthy”, “painfree”, “casual”, “buzzing”, and the learning itfosters as “organic”, “almost by accident, like,intravenous”. They have revealed that theirlearning, and the relationships formed throughgroup-work, “take on a life outside the class”(Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005). A survey on thefirst-year experience of Australian students(Department of Education, Employment andWorkplace Relations, 2005) defines engagement as“the time, energy and resources students devote toactivities designed to enhance their learning atuniversity. These activities range from a simplemeasure of time spent on campus or studying, toin- and out-of-class learning experiences thatFinding friends and freaking out: the potential of enquiry-basedlearning to enhance the first-year experienceKaren O’Rourke36257 New ALT Journal:Layout 1  19/8/08  16:29  Page 48ALT JOURNAL NUMBER 4: SUMMER 2008 49connect students to their peers in educationallypurposeful and meaningful ways.” UK EBL studentsreport that this takes place:“Even though it was a Friday you wanted to bethere, it was fun learning. You knew you wouldlearn something that would be useful, whereas inother courses you would not bother going to alecture on a text that you weren't going to write anessay about or answer an exam question on. Withthis you knew that every session would contributeto what you were learning.”“… the contact hours are increased because we’realways working with our group and that’s contacthours. It’s really good because we’re so motivatedto work and we’re not isolated.” (Hutchings andO’Rourke, 2005) Students engaging in EBL during their first year atuniversity are given supported opportunities torehearse and practise giving feedback andfeedforward, so that by their third year they areconfident:“The nature of EBL is that we are all workingtogether so we get to know each other really wellso you wouldn’t be too shy in saying ‘listen, mate,that bit was really good but you could improve onthat bit’. You wouldn’t feel any qualms with thatbecause we all know each other, it’s not as if we’redealing with strangers and we wouldn’t have knowneach other if it wasn’t for the style of the courseand the group work.” (Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005)They are also competent, demonstrating a moreformalised and structured approach:“I got regular and comprehensive feedback from[tutor] and peers. The feedback was very specific,broken down and not just general.” (Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005)Student development in the subjectEngaging students in research-like processes canhelp them to develop more sophisticated ways of‘knowing’. The EBL environment benefits fromteachers modelling and discussing research andknowledge creation within their own disciplines.Kay Sambell suggests that most first-year studentshave little or no idea of what their university tutorsdo ‘behind the scenes’ in terms of research activity(Sambell, 2008) and so have no conception of theirteachers as being learners, explorers, investigatorsthemselves. EBL, i.e. learning in ‘research mode’,involves students in the excitement of discovery andbreaks down barriers between student and teacher:“It felt like there were real levels of mutual respectbetween the students and the tutor.” “You feel like you’re supposed to be here. We’re alltalking with tutors.” (Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005) EBL allows the student to have-a-go at research, todevelop the skills and language, and helps to de-mystify what it means to be a researcher, as thisfirst-year student revealed:“I originally thought research was a big thing to do… scientists and stuff. I know it’s not now. I know Ican do it. It’s about bring critical, looking at whatother people have done, then finding a methodologyand asking questions.” (Sambell, 2008)We might compare the above comment to a verysimilar one quoted in Leeds Met’s The Little Book ofSkills for Learning:“I soon learned that it did not require a great brainto do original research. One must be highlymotivated, exercise good judgement, haveintelligence, imagination, determination and a littleluck. One of the most important qualities in doingresearch, I found, was to ask the right questions atthe right time.” (Julian Axelrod, Nobel prize-winning scientist) (Scopes, 2007)36257 New ALT Journal:Layout 1  19/8/08  16:29  Page 49ALT JOURNAL NUMBER 4: SUMMER 200850Developing supportive networks andfriendshipsThe first-years surveyed over a ten-year period inAustralia (Department of Education, Employmentand Workplace Relations, 2005) revealed that‘emotional health’ was rated the most importantelement if they (particularly females) were tocontinue with their studies at university. Yorke and Longden (2008) also discovered that‘making friends’ was a crucial element of a positivefirst-year experience. Achieving a sense ofbelonging is often something that is more difficultfor those who engage as ‘commuter students’ anddo not live cheek-by-jowl with other first-years.Others who indicated isolation were part-time anddistance learners, students with dependants, withjobs or those who came from backgrounds wherethere was limited or no experience of highereducation. The Australian survey revealed thatstudents who spend less time on campus are alsothose least likely to ask questions in class andcontribute to class discussions. Consider this comment from a third-year studentencountering EBL for the first time towards the endof her undergraduate programme:“I would have liked to have seen the EBL methodsintroduced right at the start of my university career.As a student who lives at home, who belongs tosuch a large department, on such a non-practicalcourse, it has been quite lonely. Finding friends hasbeen a challenge. The opportunity to work in smallgroups from Year 1 would have been ideal for me.”(Hutchings and O’Rourke, 2005)Students surveyed by Yorke and Longden citedfrequently their concerns about the level of contactwith academic staff, lack of support from fellowstudents and emotional problems involving others(Yorke and Longden, 2008). Their report suggeststhat institutions can assist students in friendshipformation through the approaches they adopt toteaching; for example, by engaging students early onin activities that involve collaboration and team work. ConclusionThe first year of higher education is not experiencedby students alone. The ‘partners in learning’ ethosof EBL means that tutors engage themselves inlearning deeply about their students and often liaisemore closely with the colleagues due to inherit theirstudents in subsequent years. The extract belowcomes from an email sent to by a second-year tutorto the first-year Computer Science course directorin September 2007 a week after teaching a group ofstudents who had just come through a new EBLpilot module“I’ve noticed … the students seem to be moreswitched on and able to work independently, thereis less fuss … [I] noticed the self direction and theaccuracy of information the students had returnedafter foraging. I believe this to be in no small partdown to the first-year project. So on the basis ofthis week’s experience, hats off to the [pilot project]team for effecting what looks like a real change ofculture amongst our students, much for the better.” 36257 New ALT Journal:Layout 1  19/8/08  16:29  Page 50ALT JOURNAL NUMBER 4: SUMMER 2008 51ReferencesDepartment of Education, Employment andWorkplace Relations (2005) The First YearExperience in Australian Universities: Findings from aDecade of National Studies. Final Report. Available at:www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/policy_issues_reviews/key_issuesElton, L. (2000) It starts with the student. TimesHigher Education Supplement, 21 July, p. 34.Gough, G. (2007) EBL in Computer Science.Manchester: The University of Manchester.Hutchings, W.B., and O’Rourke, K. (2005) EvaluatingLearning Change: how third-year English Literaturestudents adapt to enquiry-based learning. Centrefor Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning Essays andStudies. Manchester: University of Manchester.Available at:www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ceebl/resources/Johnston, B. (2006) Developing Institution-WideTransition Programmes. Innovations in Supportingthe First Year Experience, SPARQS Conference, TheUniversity of Edinburgh, May 2006. Kahn, P. and O’Rourke, K. (2005) UnderstandingEnquiry-Based Learning. In: Barrett, T., MacLabhrainn, I., and Fallon, H. (eds) Handbook ofEnquiry and Problem-Based Learning: Irish Case-Studies and International Perspectives. Galway:AISHE and CELT, NUI Galway.Sambell, K. (2008) The impact of Enquiry-BasedLearning on the first year experience ofstudentship: student perspectives. Proceedings ofthe European First Year Experience conference,Wolverhampton, 8 May. Scopes, M. (ed) (2007) The Little Book of Skills forLearning. Leeds: Leeds Metropolitan University.Available at: www.skillsforlearning.leedsmet.ac.ukYorke, M. and Longden, B. (2008) The first-yearexperience of higher education in the UK: final report.York: The Higher Education Academy. Available at:www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/research/surveys/fyeKaren O’RourkeAcademic DeveloperCentre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,Institute for Enterprise36257 New ALT Journal:Layout 1  19/8/08  16:29  Page 51

Finding friends and freaking out: the potential of enquiry-based learning to enhance the first-year experience

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